What I like about this crisp poem, Neo, is that it can have many voices. I spent a career working in prisons and can easily imagine the same thoughts running through an inmate's mind. Then, of course, there are the psychiatric seiings Todski alluded to as well as therapeutic communities where at least some of the patients are there involuntarily.

Neo's comment didn't come through on the quote feature, but I agree with him on the Xanax addiction. I am horribly allergic to benzo's. They turned me into an evil cruel bitch and I didn't even recognize myself. It took two stints in rehab and 2 arrests to get me straight. I would not normally admit this, but it is the truth and I am still trying to make it up to people I hurt, and I include myself in that.

Anyone who has the problem, and it isn't a problem for everyone, but some people just cannot tolerate them. And, I was told by a doctor in rehab, that once a person stops taking them, it can take up to three years for the brain to rewire itself and begin producing GABA again. I won't bore y'all with stuff on neurotransmitters, but GABA produced by ones own brain is very important!

hugs people, be well, love each other and forgive if it is in your heart.

pelegrino, glad it elevates - the music i was listening to tried to steal my heart straight from its cage/protection of ribs. the cathedral's image on screen (with its ribbed structure arcing above the nave) paired well with the arc of ribs, so they came together in this.

oldbear and tsotha - glad it surprised and pleased in equal measure
oneiria - thanks for the comment!

re. why i bleed ink:
ishtat - you have me wondering now what to do their... the 'you' was plural, which then turned to 'their' as in individuals amongst the group. perhaps i should also retitle as 'the inappropriate gift', drop that line and return the last two of the original which address the bleeding ink point. thanks for giving me a headache

tsotha - how much do we reveal in the bleedout, how much do we hide? sounds like a poem you need to write! perhaps those last lines need reinstating, re my comments to ish above.

ash - blood, ink, still messy but in this case it's the blood people are more squeamish about.

gm - meshing? i wouldn't even know where to start

re. altered state:
gm - you're right about the clunk in part one. also the damned typo that was meant to be 'flickering' of course. what the hell 'fickering' was, i dunno, lol. guess my eyes were tired. the 3rd's my favourite, too. the whole needs revisiting and revising. thanks

ash - thankyou

it also came as a surprise to me that the term mesmerising came from the other, animal magnetism, since they seem quite different in today's usage. i'm glad they originally meant the same/similar, since there's something about an open fire that easily mesmerises me with its magnetism!

My thanks to butters for recommending "My Children, Of Course, Are Grown Now" in NPR. Thanks too for her comments as well as those from Tsotha, Ash, Cleardaynow, and Todski.

The comments were very helpful to me in that they made me think about the delicate balance between enough description and too much. Interestingly, butters' interpretation, entirely credible, fits the poem better in my opinion than the narrative I had in my mind inspired by John Hull, a British theologian at the University of Birmingham who started to go blind as a young husband and father:

Thank you Maria for your comment on my illustrated poem, "Goblin Topplers". The perpetrators in the destruction of one of the hoodoos (goblins) in Goblin Valley State Park are being prosecuted on felony charges (see link on the Wikipedia about it). The title of my illustrated poem came from locals and Utah news stations, wasn't solely my creation.

Sorry if this isn't the proper place, but I would like to thank Todski and Harry for bumping all those threads for me. That's a whole lotta reading for me. I wish that Mushroom of Knowledge was something I could eat and absorb.

Sorry if this isn't the proper place, but I would like to thank Todski and Harry for bumping all those threads for me. That's a whole lotta reading for me. I wish that Mushroom of Knowledge was something I could eat and absorb.

careful eating that mushroom you may find yourself through the looking glass
looking at a Cheshire grin